


Sacrifice

by adenineTransfixion



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Drug Withdrawal, Eventual Happy Ending, Imprisonment, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other, Pale Romance, Red Romance, Romance, internalized ableism, read with caution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 04:34:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3636897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adenineTransfixion/pseuds/adenineTransfixion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One changed action can save a life, but doom a timeline and lead to things nobody expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifice

Nobody understood why he did this. They must have thought his think pan was fried—or that his low blood made him stupid—either way they all avoided him. That might have had something to do with the enraged highblood he sat beside just as much as his apparent insanity. 

He had lost track of how long he had spent holding the enraged Gamzee, he could only guess based on the scratches on his body. He was stronger than you would expect, but he still wept sometimes, golden brown tears splashing on Gamzee’s clothing, adding to the bloody rainbow. Mostly, though, he just hummed unintelligibly. The only thing he knew for sure was that he couldn’t just leave him alone through the withdrawal. Gamzee was special to him. The highblood was one of the very few who had seen beyond face value. 

Perhaps that mellow, unquestioning acceptance had resulted in the feelings he felt. He was flushed, hopelessly red, and there was nothing he could do about it despite the impossibility of his feelings ever coming to anything. But he could do this; with the last threads of his long mustered courage he could stand by his best friend even when all others shunned all contact. Even he, with his physical disability, could do that much.

So he held him. As the toxins from sweeps of sopor abuse slowly wore themselves out and his body went through pure agony healing his beaten form and trying to adjust to the lack of fulfillment, Tavros held him. 

The others brought him food sometimes, and once someone—he thought it might have been Kanaya—urged him to just stop. He refused to give up. Falling into a daze of timelessness in which he soothed the best he could, while Gamzee snarled and cursed him for being so low, claws ripping to the extent of his bonds.  
When next Tavros rose from the daze, he was being dragged by a sound he had not heard before. A low keening growl rising from the highblood as he reclined in a period of relative serenity. It was a pained, angry sound and Tavros couldn’t stand it. He bent slowly and hummed an answering keen, hand petting Gamzee’s blood stained hand. His painfully thin body jerked and he snarled, the keen rising to a shriek that tore at Tavros’ sensitive ears with enraged clarity. 

Tavros winced, hands flying up in defense against the sound. He had to make him quiet! This sound was enough to send most trolls over the edge. He would have to take drastic measures, thinking quickly he chose and area of his forearm that could take the damage without great risk and very deliberately placed it within striking distance. He hissed as Gamzee’s jagged fangs sunk deeply into his grey skin, trails of ochre liquid seeping from the corners of his mouth. The Taurus could feel the continued vibration of sound against his skin, but now it was properly muffled.

It hurt, but he had gone through worse, and now, with those tearing teeth safely out of commission he could try something he wouldn’t have dared before. He papped Gamzee’s sweaty forehead gently, hand coming away sticky with paint, and blood. To Tavros’ surprise Gamzee reacted positively to the intimate action, seeming to calm. The keen ceased slowly, then the fangs withdrew jerkily and Gamzee’s eyelids sagged over red eyes, returning to their lazy, half-lidded usual. 

Seeming utterly delirious, he licked the blood away. Only once every drop was gone did he pause to look dreamily about. He wasn’t high, that was certain, but the mellow gleam had returned. Grey irises settled on Tavros and he licked his cracked lips as if remembering the taste of his blood. 

“How ya doin’, motherfucker?”

“G-Gamz!” Tavros beamed, throwing his uninjured arm around the highblood’s neck in an unusual show of warmth. “You’re back!” 

“Whoa, calm your tits, Tavbro. What’s got you all ruffled, hugging a motherfucker out of nowhere?” But even as he spoke, his lanky arms were looping loosely around Tavros’ back, chains clinking. Tavros couldn’t help but weep, discreetly and quietly against his best friends crusty, rank shirt. Gamzee was back! He had passed through the gauntlet of withdrawal and as far as Tavros knew it was a one-time deal. He was back for good. Tavros was so happy for him! So proud and relieved and so… so very tired and heartsick. Oh, Gamzee… 

“Hey now, bro… what’s wrong? What’s going on?” Tavros shook his head mutely, knocking Gamzee gently in the cheek with his horn. 

“I-I uhm, I just missed, you, Gamz.” 

“Aw, Tavbro, I ain’t been nowhere, just forgot who I was for a bit. I’m back now and I ain’t gonna forget you again any time soon.” His bony arms tightened a little, giving Tavros a friendly squeeze, and he rested his chin between the Taurus’ horns. “Shhh…” Tavros relaxed, calming as a cool hand smoothed over his shoulders and a low voice shooshed. It was wrong… but right. It was ridiculously intimate, and really, Tavros felt a little guilty for accepting something that should have only been done between conciliatory quadrant mates, but he did anyways. It felt wrong to have someone not in his quadrants do this for him… but overwhelmingly, irrevocably right to have Gamzee do it. 

He stopped crying, pulling himself together and wiping his runny nose. Well… that had been humiliating. He winced and pulled away, opening his mouth to apologize for the damp spot he had left on Gamzee’s shirt—not that a little more body fluids would make much of a difference, but it was still embarrassing—but never had the chance. The heavy locks on the door clattered and the heavy door slammed open, and there stood Karkat Vantas, twin sickles in hand. 

“For fucks sake, Nitram! Shut him up or I swear I’ll tear off your horns and shove them so fucking far up your blood spewing waste chute that they’ll re-fucking-grow through your burned out think pan and jettison themselves off this Gog forsaken chunk of rock in an effort to escape your pure, filth sucking presence, you…! Waste…. of…” His eyes widened hugely. “Gamzee?” 

“Heeey… if it isn’t my best palebro! Now I’ve got both my most miraculous motherfuckers up in here with-“ the sound of Karkat’s backhand resounded in the following silence, and Tavros quailed against Gamzee’s chest where he had ducked out of the way. The Juggalo’s fingers were clenched claw-like into the Taurus’s ribs. His face slowly turned back to face the Cancer, his expression dead serious. “Don’t. MOTHERFUCKING. Test me, palebro. I wouldn’t dream of hurting you, but I can’t say the same for the other motherfucker in my head. GIVE ME A LITTLE MOTHERFUCKING TIME. Before you all up and let all that anger out on me.” 

Karkat flinched, taking an involuntary step back. Strangely enough it wasn’t the indigobloods moirail who first moved to calm him, it was Tavros. Shyly butting his head against Gamzee’s chin and reaching up to hesitantly pap him on the cheek. “ C-calm, uh, chill Gamzee. He, um, was just, worried about, uh, you. S-shoosh.” No sooner had Gamzee calmed, a weak rendition of his dopy smile returning, than Karkat was re-captcheloguing his weapons and dropping in to give him a proper hug of his own. 

“Stupid! Don’t do that again you panless fool!” 

“Nice to see you to, my bestest motherfucking palebro. It’s downright miraculous to be seeing you again.” Tavros blushed; extracting himself from was an intimate renewal of moraillegiance. He shouldn’t even be here. Gamzee didn’t need him to look after him anymore, and he just felt terribly out of place now. He stood quietly, on legs creakingly stiff from lack of oiling and left as quietly as he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little something I wrote in class a few years back when I was just getting into Homestuck. I haven't bothered to edit it since then, but i was told by the schools resident Gamzee that it's good. 
> 
> This is set in a alternate timeline where an action by either Nepeta or Tavros resulted in the survival of both them, and Equius, the capture of sober Gamzee and the creation of said timeline. It's... complicated.


End file.
